Mr. P Character Analysis

The Wellpinit geometry teacher, who advises Junior to leave the reservation. Mr. P is one of many “weird” and “lonely” characters in the novel, such as Mary, Junior, and Gordy, and is known in Wellpinit for frequently falling asleep and forgetting to come to school. Mr. P, who is white, has lived and taught on the reservation for many years, and confesses to Junior that he used to be part of a cruel education system designed to “kill the Indian to save the child,” for which he now feels he needs to atone. While the fact that he knew about, and encouraged, Mary’s secret hopes of becoming a writer suggests that he was once hopeful and competent enough to serve as a mentor, his other attributes as a teacher illustrate that he too has been absorbed into the reservation’s culture of depression and defeat. Importantly, however, he is the first adult to tell Junior that he deserves better than what he has.